The present invention relates to an animal wool slenderized by drawing, its manufacturing method, and spun yarns obtained by blending the fiber with others.
A synthetic fiber is slenderized by drawing after it has been spun out. The primary object of this drawing is not only to make the fiber finer but to improve its strengths through orientation of its molecules. The fibers spun out are continuous, thus easy to draw.
Recently, with diversification of fashion, demands for clothing using fine animal wools are expanding. However, it has heretofore been inevitable to rely on natural raw materials for supply of fine fiber animal wools. Such fine fiber animal wools are very high priced, their output being extremely small. Finer the wools, higher the price. Techniques which enable their supply at low prices have been sought.
For slenderizing natural animal wools, for example, dissolving the surface of the animal wool or drawing the animal wool may be contemplated. The former approach is limited in thinning the fiber for the possibility of substantially impairing the hand, characteristics or strengths of the animal wool and therefore may be used only in special cases.
On the other hand, with regard to the latter approach, animal wools are different from synthetic fibers, the mean fiber length of Merino wool, for example, being normally 50-90 mm, such that their drawing on industrial scale has been quite out of consideration. In fact, since animal wools themselves have practically useful strengths, attempts to draw animal wools have never been made until now. Academic studies on complex changes that are induced when wool is drawn are available (e.g. Journal of the Textile Institute, Vol. 55, (1964-6) 324-332, WOOL SCIENCE REVIEW No. 15 (1956) 39-50, Education Department I.W.S.) but they have nothing to do with the techniques for providing slenderized animal wools on industrial scale. Nor are known any techniques for setting the slenderized animal wools in that state.